Empowering the lives of children in Cambodia

Newsletter July - Sept 2014

Volume 14, Issue 3 www.scv.org.au

News from Geraldine …

“Like” Sunrise Children’s Villages on Facebook to receive regular updates on what we’re up to. We love to receive your comments on our posts.

More inside!

“There’s a crack in everything –

that’s how the light gets in …”

Such exciting news in this issue – our new pre-school, Macquarie Group learning centre, Sopheak’s story and much more.

July kicked off with our annual budget meeting where our Treasurer, Rich-ard Fennell came from Adelaide to Cambodia to battle the budget with me, Soksan and our local financial employee, Prach Vannak. Keeping to our limit is always a challenge! American staff from Computershare made their sec-ond bike ride for Sunrise Three and really enjoyed their time there with the children. They raised over an amazing $200,000 and we will certainly find ways to put this to good use. Thanks again Computershare. St Mary's Col-lege in Adelaide made a day visit with 19 students and really engaged with everything we do at Sunrise One.

July is always our annual 3-day beach trip and it is like planning an invasion of a country with all our children, staff and several long term sponsors coming here to join in the fun.

In the middle of the month I had my an-nual medical check up and expect to make it to the end of the year! I am feeling I need to slow down some days though... I then flew to Sydney to present for the third time at the Project Brightside dinner (see page 6). They are an amazing group of young women committed to helping Sunrise and other charities. Wish there were more like them! I had an amazing meeting with the large legal company Amherst who will set up a staff giving program later in 2015. These corporate involvements are so important for us. A local travel agency, World Pop, visited with gifts for the children here including educational supplies for many children outside Sunrise who take part in our programs. It is important for the children to see that there are also Khmers who care about them.

Every August I present to the Humanitarian Affairs UK Symposium and am also on their Advisory Board. More than 750 university students register to meet and discuss how they can use their degrees to help improve situations in their own countries. It is an inspiring gathering of young people and I look forward to this every year. Over 100 of the students came to Sunrise for a day's practical work and they did maintenance and farm work to make improvements at Sunrise One. Waew and Makara, two of our best English speaking teenagers, gave moving speeches at this event impressing every-one with their confidence (see page 6.)

I spent time in Siem Reap with the children and Dennis Bunnik, whose travel agency is giving us new office space in the city of Adelaide at a ridiculously low rent. The girls in the office are thrilled about the new locality and plan to move in October when we can send you pho-tos. Warmest of thanks to all at Bunniks!

A new sponsor, Roland Antiss, a retired piano teacher, donated a new piano for our many piano students and the tone and sound of this makes us all very happy. I flew to Perth where a long term group of sponsors called The Helping Foundation, held a fundraising event at the Fremantle Prison, where guests had to pay bail to get two famous football players out who had been locked up in cells. They are coming in October to give us the money personally and are like family now after coming here helping out for some years. Thank you every-one. I had an interview with Scoop Magazine, but it is only published in WA. Another good opportunity though to spread the word. Next stop, Bendigo, with Richard Fennell who is the Bendigo Bank CFO, to make 2 presentations to staff and this is already resulting in many more sponsorships.

Then on to Sydney in September to visit our students at the Central Coast Grammar School, where they annually accept four of our stu-dents and two teachers who are absorbed in all that happens in the school. No need to tell you how much this is enjoyed by all. Many thanks to the host families who welcomed the children and teachers into their homes and to Peter Davies and Austbrokers, Sydney, who fund this program every year. Back in Cambodia, Soksan and I were invited to be on the Task Force of the Ministry of Social Affairs Na-tional Orphans and Vulnerable Children's Committee. There was much to learn from this all day meeting and we felt honoured to be among the very few children's centres invited.

The Pchum Ben holidays happen every September to honour ances-tors and most of our children return for a few days to their vil-lages. 30 children had nowhere to go, so they stayed with me and generous sponsors, Rob and Cameron Brown paid for them to have pizza, ice cream, bowling and ice skating. The children who were depressed that they had nowhere to go at this special time of the year actually felt that they had a better time than the others! Warm thanks to Rob and Cam who now have many, many Sunrise friends.

Bayon Television invited me to be on a talk show speaking about Sunrise and I hope some rich Khmers heard it and will donate! At the end of September we had a long meeting with the Cabinet Director of General Hun Manet (Prime Minister Hun Sen's son) to talk about how we can work together in arranging for the Sunrise concert that will be performed here at a local theatre with the General being the guest of honour. We want to show the local people what can be achieved by these children with love, security, hope, education and by nurturing their natural talents. We are trying to make our newslet-ters much shorter to keep you all amused to the end, so we just can-not mention all the many generous sponsors and visitors who came and made life better for us all, but they know who they are and know that they made a difference.

Heartfelt thanks as always to our treasured sponsors and now I hand over to Soksan...

Page 2

Several training sessions have recently been held for our students and staff.

Training on Preparation For Life After High School: 2-day training for 49 high school students aims to build trust and confidence through motivation and planning for university, select-ing study skills to suit their interests and future career prospects.

Student Club Sa-art Training for Sunrise 1: A new Hygiene Program focusing on good eating, drinking and liv-ing with assistance from the Splash Cambodia Organization.

Prevention of Child Abuse: This training was conducted for 88 children of Sunrise 1 aged over 13 years old and 9 children from Sunrise 2 with the First Step Or-ganization. It was aimed at raising awareness of teenage boys and girls and staff regarding forms of child abuse and how to protect themselves.

Visit to Japan

In late July, fifteen Sunrise 2 children had the wonderful opportu-nity to visit Japan, learn about Japanese traditional dances, music and culture and performed Khmer dances in return. The Apsara dance was the most popular dance. The children performed in 6 different cities including Tokyo, and had the opportunity to visit the Tokyo Tower, Zoo, Palace, Human Support Center, and some schools.

They enjoyed the Japanese food and also learned some Japanese words to communicate with their new friends.

This was the second trip for our children in Japan, and was very generously sponsored by Mr. Tomoya Tashiro from the Tomo Tomo Club.

Operations update from Yi Soksan

Construction of the Macquarie Group Learning Center project is now moving for-ward following the design, contracting and local permission stages. The project to pro-vide a large, modern learning centre for hundreds of disadvantaged children from poor families living around Sunrise is gener-ously funded by the Macquarie Bank and is expected to be completed by February, 2015.

Macquarie Group Learning Centre

Students visit Central Coast Four children with high academic ability from Sunrise 1 and 2 were selected to at-tend the annual 4-week student exchange program, sponsored by the Central Coast Grammar School and Austbrokers Holdings Limited and coordinated by Mr. Peter Davies, long-term Board member of the Australia Cambodia Foundation.

This trip to Australia was a life experience for the selected children – the most notable benefits of the program were improved self-confidence, Australian cultural awareness and improved English skills. They participated in school lessons and extra-curricular activities, spoke at school and social engagements (eg Rotary and sponsor organizations).. Mr. Sen Sapharit, General Manager of Sunrise, had the opportunity to gain teaching and child development experi-ence by partnering in the classroom with experienced Australian teachers. Heartfelt thanks to the Central Coast Grammar School and Austbrokers Hold-ings Limited for sponsoring this important experience for our students.

Page 3

Soccer success Three Sunrise girls - Sreynoch, Sreyline and Sreymom - have been selected as soccer players for the Cambodian national team who will play ASEAN's AFC U-16 Women's Cup 2015 in Malaysia from 5-9 October. The girls will travel to the na-tional football training centre in Bati district, Takeo province where they train with professional coaches for 2 weeks before heading to Malaysia. Our children are representatives of Kandal Provincial Football Federa-tion. Go girls!

Kei’s future is looking up Geraldine hugs one of our children, Kei aged 17, at Sunrise 2. Kei has the blood dis-ease thalassemia and requires monthly blood transfusions. He is the size of a 9 year old boy. The future for Kei is looking up thanks to the generosity of our sponsors and Dr Betsy Williams, Dr Ram and the Women's and Children's Hospital in Ade-laide. Medical treatment has helped Kei walk faster, improved his stamina and we hope he will begin to grow again. He has just started grade 1 at primary school and is learning to read, write, add and subtract. He is happy, warm and loving. What a difference you can make by becoming a child sponsor.

Un Channy goes to a school about 4 km from her house and has

seven siblings. Her parents have chronic health problems so can’t work and solely depend on their children who work as labourers or factory workers. Sunrise has supported her with study materials, uni-forms and the chance to learn computer skills at Sunrise.

Chet Sreylin, 12 years old, had to walk 2 km to school but missed

some classes, especially in the rainy season. She has two small broth-ers and her father works in farming, fishing and construction when available and her mother works in a garment factory.

Thu Siev Ann is in grade 3 and has a younger brother and sister.

Her father died of cancer in 2013 and her mother is not in good health so they have no income when she is too sick to work as a seasonal labourer. They live in an old kitchen belonging to her un-cle. Vibol Chan Leap, 10 years old, has two older brothers and two

younger sisters, one of whom is disabled and can’t walk. Their parents have irregular construction work but income is insuf-ficient for food, schooling and healthcare so one older brother has moved to live with an uncle.

Wheels to support learning… Sunrise has recently introduced a Bike2School project with the aim of increasing new school enrolment reducing drop out levels of disadvantaged children who live far from schools. So far, about sixty bikes and helmets have been provided. Long time supporters of Sunrise, Peter and June Leggett from Adelaide, have provided 10 of these bikes and helmets. As their messages of thanks show, all the children and their siblings and parents are extremely appre-ciative of this wonderful opportunity of hope for their futures.

Page 4

Our Pre-school is open – a huge

impact on our local community

Exciting news. Our pre-school for young Sunrise children and 50 children

who live in the community around our Phnom Penh centre opened on 18

August. This is the first school for 3-5 year olds in this area. It will make a

huge impact on the local community because, until now, rice farmers and

poor parents could only work if their older children stayed home to take

care of younger siblings. Now through Sunrise, the pre-schoolers are with

us so older children can go to school too. Unicef research shows that Cam-

bodian children who have pre-school education perform better than those

with none.

Two experienced teachers run the classes in a wonderful and well-equipped teaching environment. Children dress

in Sunrise pre-school uniforms, receive school bags with books and study materials, which parents pay a small

contribution for. We provide daily transport from Iroha School to the Sunrise Learning Centre and free school

fees.

We are seeking further funding to broaden the impact of this program by extending opening hours to 8 hours

each day, so we can run two shifts and educate more children.

Help us reduce our mailing costs

Please send an email to admin@scv.org.au to let us know if you would prefer to receive an email version of the Newsletter. You can look at it online or print out the PDF version and read at your leisure.

Every little bit counts ….

Jumping for joy at the beach Thanks to the wonderful support of our sponsors and staff, our children

can experience a holiday at the beach. Once a year, our children get to

experience what many children take for granted, a holiday, fun with other

children and a break from regular school routine. All our children travel

from Siem Reap and Phnom Penh to the beach in Sihanoukville. A logisti-

cal challenge but well worth it everyone agrees.

The annual trip is largely funded by one extended family in NSW. Thank

you from us all.

Khmer proverb Think before doing!

Page 5

Playhouses give a great afternoon of creative fun When supporter Sue Liu told her friend Sortec Ly that she was

heading to Cambodia to spend school holidays with the Sun-

rise children in July, he donated and managed to ship 15 of his

awesome cardboard cubby houses with packs of crayons and

textas.

On Sue’s first afternoon at Sunrise 1, out came 4 cubbies, carried

in their large, flat boxes on top of heads, straight to the dormito-

ries followed by excited little children. The bigger kids were put

‘in charge’ of putting together the castle, flying horse and teepee

cubbies, trying to wrangle bits, pieces, instructions and squealing

crayon wielding kids.

You can hear the shrieks of excitement, can’t you? 50 children

get hands on, some trying to sit in the cubbies before they are

even constructed while others are drawing and decorating on the

boxes and bits and pieces.

It was an hour of so of terrific (loud) excitement, creativity and

fun. The photos speak for themselves. Playhouses and crayons also arrived

in Siem Reap and Sihanoukville, much to the children’s delight.

Thank you Sortec for your creative brilliance and such incredible generos-

ity to your fellow Cambodians. You made a lot of kids so very happy. You

can see the range of Sortec’s very cool playhouses at www.puggy.com.au

Thanks from Sunrise

New E-Book featuring Geraldine and Sunrise

Supporter Minxx Fox, has recently written a novel, which is available in eBook format. It is a love story set in Cam-bodia with reference to Sunrise Children’s Villages and Geraldine and she has offered to donate 50% of her profits to Sunrise.

Titled “The Lie Cycle”, it’s main theme is the effect that lies can have on people, especially if they become out of control. The book explores religious tolerance, child exploitation, cultural differences and ethical dilemmas. It high-lights both the beauty of Cambodia and the devastating poverty. The reader is taken along on Jamee’s journey of self discovery, experiencing her pain and her joy, and that of the many diverse people she encounters.

This is an excerpt from her book: “The following Sunday, a week after Aedan had attacked her, Jamee finished reading to Ponleak and took some of the food back to her cabin. She sat and sipped a whiskey and cola on her small back decking, reading Geraldine Cox’s ‘Home Is Where The Heart Is’. She regarded Geraldine a hero, and was really engaged in reading about her experiences as a founder of the Sunrise Children’s Villages, and how she selflessly cared for the chil-dren she unconditionally loved. She was fully absorbed by the literature, until she heard a knock at the door. She thought it might be Charles coming to talk to her and she reluc-tantly put down the book and hid her drink. She got up from her chair, brushed the crumbs off her chest as she walked, and slowly opened the door.”

The book can be purchased by following the link from www.minxxfox.com and will be available in print version once 750 copies of the eBook are sold.

Page 6

Thank You Computershare UK

Geraldine and a Computershare staff member were both wearing the company corporate colour when Geraldine gave a DVD presentation in Bris-tol and London to thank the staff for their won-derful ongoing support through their “Change a Life” program.

Project Brightside Dinner

The annual Project Brightside Gala Dinner in support of Sunrise Children’s Villages was held in Sydney on July 19. Thanks to the 200+ crowd, over $30 000 was raised – an amazing achievement! It was a fabulous night, with special guest Geraldine Cox moving more than a few people to tears.

We’d like to thank our wonderful, long term sponsors for making helping make the night a success - A & A Arbor Tree Service, First Class Home Improvements, International SOS and North Shore BMW.

Project Brightside are excited to continue our support of Geraldine and the children of Sunrise into 2015.

Winning hearts at the Humanitarian Affairs

University Scholars Leadership Symposium

700 university scholars from around the world came away with new inspiration, goals, memories and friendships after a week long symposium in Phnom Penh in August, at which Sunrise played a central role.

Geraldine and Sunrise children Waew and Makara gave the key note speech on Day 1.

Waew and Makara bravely told their stories about how they came to Sunrise and how their lives have turned around with the loving care, support and education they receive. Geraldine then told the Sunrise story to the packed audience, who were on their feet for a standing ovation at the end.

During the week, 150 students visited Sunrise Phnom Penh to make improvements around the grounds and re-pair roofs of outdoor pagodas. Highlights included a deli-cious fried chicken lunch, impromptu concert and dancing by the children. Everyone was on their feet dancing by the end and no one wanted to leave.

The Sunrise children’s choir closed out symposium with a stunning heart-felt performance of “Tell me why”.

Sopheak’s story Head start for the next generation Sopheak is 30 years old. He came to Sunrise aged 10 after being rescued by a family member who tracked him down to a Buddhist pagoda where monks were caring for him. He has no parents. He had never been to school. Sopheak started grade 1 at school aged 11 when he came to Sunrise. He continued to grade 7 and left school aged 18. After school, he was sponsored to study agricul-ture in Gympie in Queensland, Australia, where he learnt about plant reproduction techniques and grafting. And his English improved out of sight. He returned to Cambodia where he could put into practice everything he had learnt in Austra-lia. He now runs the rice paddies at Sunrise, tends the gardens and is also a driver. Sopheak met his beautiful wife through Sunrise, where she attended sewing classes. The ex-tended family live close to Sunrise. Now, their 3 year old son has just started attending the new Sunrise pre-school and his wife is expecting a child in January. The loving look on Sopheak’s face hugging his son says it all.

Dream it. Plan it. Do it! – the

catch cry for the symposium

Page 7 FUNDRAISING – GET INVOLVED!

Online donation pages can also be easily created for Sunrise through GoFundraise and for many reasons:

running for a cause, cycling for a cause, in celebration, in memory, it’s my birthday, making a difference,

personal challenge. See GoFundraise for details. http://www.gofundraise.com.au/

Host a fundraising event A great way to get involved with Sunrise Children’s Villages is by hosting a fundraising event for us. To create a fundraiser for Sunrise, see our website: www.scv.org.au/fundraising

Everyday Hero

A fun way to raise money is to register online with Everyday Hero (everydayhero.com.au) for events you would like to join. Events are all kinds including fun runs, weight loss challenges, cycling, and more. You can select Sunrise Children’s Village as the charity you would like to raise funds for. Here are some we think you may like ….

Sydney: Sunday, November 2 Be part of the Rebel Run Sydney presented by The Sun-Herald. Taking place on Sunday, November 2 at Sydney

Olympic Park and Sydney Olympic Park Athletics Centre, Run Sydney has something for everyone.

For more information go to: http://www.everydayhero.com.au/event/runsydney2014

Melbourne: Sunday, November 16 Take on The Sunday Age City2Sea in Melbourne presented by Westpac on Sunday, November 16.

The City2Sea 15km course runs from the Melbourne CBD to St Kilda and there is also a 5km course.

For more information go to: http://www.everydayhero.com.au/event/city2sea2014

Bequests and Memorial donations

You can help Sunrise Children’s Villages continue

the amazing work of Geraldine Cox and the team

in the future by leaving a gift in your will or by

encouraging your friends and relatives to make a

gift in lieu of flowers.

Being named a beneficiary in people's Wills forms

an important part of our income and enables us to

continue to transform children’s lives in Cambo-

dia. It may be as simple as adding a codicil to your

existing will. Capital gains tax relief may be avail-

able to your estate for bequests made to certain

charities including Sunrise Children’s Villages.

More information, see our website

www.scv.org.au/bequeathing or contact us by

email: admin@scv.org.au

World Pop Tour

Local Cambodian travel agency, World

Pop Tour, arranged a large supply of

notebooks and stationery for our

Sunrise children, Iroha Primary School and local community children.

Thanks also to Peter von Minden and family. They kindly donated a large amount of study materials, mosquito nets, mats, shoes and socks and school bags for Sunrise 2 children - almost a year worth of materials. This is very useful and timely to supply our goods for next year. Here is his blog for more

Information: http://peteandchonsasiavaca-tion.blogspot.com/2014/08/sunrise-children-village-in-siem-reap.html.

THANKS!!

WE HAVE MOVED!! Yes, we have now moved. We are in our beautiful offices at

Bunnik House, Level 1, 45 Flinders Street, Adelaide 5000 The move went well and we are settling in to our new surroundings. Further details in the next newsletter.............

T-Shirts $25.00

Black or white, adult L, M, S

Caps $12.00 One size fits all!

Cambodian wraps $12.00

These cotton scarves (170 cm x 65 cm) are ideal as a Christmas stocking filler

or Kris Kringle gift at $12 each. Can be used in many ways to decorate your

picnic table or simply as a scarf! In black/white, red/white, pink/white, purple/

white, blue/white, purple/black, aqua/black.

Geraldine’s life story:

“Home is Where the Heart Is”

$38.00

The story of Sunrise:

“My Khmer Heart” DVD

$22.00

Merchandise Order Form Quantity Price Subtotal

Name and delivery address: TOTAL

_______________________________________________________________________________

__________________________________________________Phone No.:__________________________

Merchandise

For merchandise purchases, complete the order form and include payment details below. Please note all prices quoted include postage.

Page 8

Sponsor a child or Donate Yes, I want to make a difference to a child’s life in Cambodia

STEP 1: REGULAR MONTHLY DONATION

I would like to sponsor a child with a donation to Sunrise Children’s Villages of:

$50 per month Other: $____ (min. $40/month)

AND/OR MY SINGLE DONATION

YES, I would like to make a single gift of: $50 $100 $200 Other $______

I would like to pay for merchandise as listed above: $______

STEP 2: MY PAYMENT

Direct debit Remit to: Australia Cambodia Foundation—SCV Operating A/c BSB 085-005 Account No. 54 952 3845

Cheque made out to: The Australia Cambodia Foundation Inc.

Debit my credit card Visa Mastercard American Express

Card no. _ _ _ _ / _ _ _ _ / _ _ _ _ / _ _ _ _ Expiry date _ _ /_ _ _ _

Today’s date _ _ /_ _ _ _ Cardholder’s name ______________________ Signature ______________________________

STEP 3: MY DETAILS

Title ____ First name _______________ Family name _________________________________

Postal address _______________________________________________________________________________________

Home phone ( ) _______________ Mobile ___________________ Email ________________________

STEP 4: RETURN COMPLETED FORM

Post: PO Box 1113, Unley BC, South Australia 5061 Email: admin@scv.org.au

Sunrise Gift Cards $12.50

This range of blank gift cards would be ideal for Christmas

featuring photography of some of the Sunrise children by

long-time supporter and photographer

Tracey Shelton. Available in packs of

6 x A6 (105mm x 148mm) blank gift

cards with envelopes (with 6 different

images).